The week before this past I got word that a first author paper of mine was accepted for publication, which was a nice excuse to try the first of a batch of bottles of Rioja Gran Reserva that I picked up last year.

Bob Parsons Alberta wrote:Yup congrats. How is the wine buying coming along in SD?

It's so-so. Although it should be said that wine manager at the local grocery is really trying, and has recently expanded the selection of imports so that I actually have a few interesting things available locally. Sioux Falls (the state's biggest metro, about an hour from here) has a few serious wine shops, the best one of which I haven't actually gotten too yet (it's the sort of place that does Bordeaux futures).

Mostly though, I've been waiting to make case purchases when visiting friends and family in greener wine pastures. And buying online, since surprisingly, quite a few online shops will ship here. The Diez Caballero was a WTSO purchase.

"The sun, with all those planets revolving about it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else to do"Galileo Galilei

(avatar: me next to the WIYN 3.5 meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory)

Hadn't forgotten about you Jim, I've just been dreadfully busy. Here's the abstract (edited for formating limitations):

WIYN Open Cluster Study LVII: Oxygen Abundances of Solar-Type Dwarfs in the Hyades and NGC 752

Oxygen has been proposed as a superior tracer, compared to iron, for studying galactic chemical evolution. In the context of improving our understanding of the evolution of Galactic oxygen using open clusters, we present a spectroscopic analysis of oxygen and iron abundances in the 650 Myr old Hyades cluster and in the 1.45 Gyr old cluster NGC 752, using high-dispersion 7774A O I triplet region spectra of dwarfs in these clusters acquired with the Hydra MOS on the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope. Motivated by recent improvements in analysis of the triplet, we use a strictly differential analysis in solar-type stars to obtain reliable O abundances. Using stars whose radial velocities and spectral cross-correlation analyses are consistent with single-star membership, we report Hyades cluster averages of [O/H] = 0.195 +/- 0.010 and [Fe/H] = 0.130 +/- 0.009 based on 22 stars, and NGC 752 cluster averages of [O/H] = -0.077 +/- 0.02 and [Fe/H] = -0.063 +/- 0.013 based on 36 stars (where the errors are the standard deviation of the mean; we discuss possible additional systematic errors). These cluster abundance averages are in very good agreement with most previous determinations. Whereas the [O/H] cluster averages utilize only stars found in the ``prime'' temperature range straddling the solar temperature, the [Fe/H] cluster averages come from stars exhibiting a flat [Fe/H]-T relation of over 1000K for the Hyades and nearly 2000K for NGC 752. Previous studies of open clusters younger than NGC 752 have reported oxygen triplet over-abundances in cool dwarfs, as compared to oxygen abundances of the prime-T range. We report that NGC 752 also shows such overabundances, at a higher level than the Hyades overabundances, and thus contradicts the idea of a decline of such overabundances with increasing age. We discuss evidence for and against correlations of the oxygen-overabundances with rotation, X-ray luminosity, chromospheric activity, and metallicity.

Basically, we are studying the oxygen abundances of open star clusters in the galaxy to learn about the chemical history of the galaxy. In particular, we wanted to investigate a previous finding (an unpublished dissertation) that young clusters have elevated oxygen abundances. This paper supports that idea (although the rest of our works reveals a completely different shape for that trend) and also tries to resolve some of the concerns that people have raised over the accuracy of the methods used to determine stellar oxygen abundances.

"The sun, with all those planets revolving about it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else to do"Galileo Galilei

(avatar: me next to the WIYN 3.5 meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory)

.....we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. A. Lincoln

In particular, we wanted to investigate a previous finding (an unpublished dissertation) that young clusters have elevated oxygen abundances. This paper supports that idea (although the rest of our works reveals a completely different shape for that trend)

Is there a cliff notes version of a) what the trend looks like b) a hypothesis about why the trend looks the way it does c) what are the implications for the overall understanding of the universe?

Jim Cassidy wrote:Is there a cliff notes version of a) what the trend looks like b) a hypothesis about why the trend looks the way it does c) what are the implications for the overall understanding of the universe?

As a matter of fact, yes - my disseration abstract! But I don't have the file handy at the moment.

"The sun, with all those planets revolving about it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else to do"Galileo Galilei

(avatar: me next to the WIYN 3.5 meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory)